You can see from the list below that Jim has been writing for over two decades and the fact that he has put up his stories for free in audio format is a testement to his love of the genre.

You can tell this during his narrations too. As he says in the introduction, he is reading them as he thought them as he was writing them. His voice changes with the text, you can feel the emotion coming through every breath. The snippets of music during the start and at the end really add to the overall presentation. Thankfully there is no sound effects or added music during the text itself, making the true power of the words come through without any superfluous trimmings.

I hope that you get enjoyment from these free e-books, and in turn peruse his commercially available paperbound books and e-books.

Posted on 24 September 2005

The Megazine Hits 15!

So.. The Megazine is 15 years old. Time flies when you’re having fun, eh?

And to celebrate the publisher have issued this particularly nice looking issue. The cover artwork is viewable through a window in the black outer cover. I like the way there is a nod to Ray Bradbury and his novel Farenheit 451. And how it’s Judge Dredd himself who is holding issues of the Megazine to throw in the incinerator. Very tongue in cheek.

Something for collectors to note: there was an error in the original print run (Judge Dredd pages 13 and 14 duplicated; The Simping Detective missing pages 7 and 8 ). This was apparently only caught after the subscribers had been mailed with their copy.

Therefore there are some unique issues floating around, which, in the future might be hard to come across. It will be the famous 15th Year Anniversary special botched copy. Oh, and a corrected version will be sent to shops and as replacements for subscribers.

Onto the issue itself..

Contents

The Simping Detective
Fifteen /

Delvin Waugh
All Hell /

Judge Dredd
Flood’s Thirteen Episode 1 /

Non-Fiction
15 Years Creep! / Text article on the history of the Judge Dredd Megazine. First part double length.

Posted on 23 September 2005

Q) According to the SciFi Television Channel, I am a Geek? Is that true?

Geek

A person regarded as foolish, inept, or clumsy.

A person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.

Junkie

A narcotics addict, especially one using heroin.

One who has an insatiable interest or devotion: a sports junkie.

A) Guess there’s no competition really. These dictionary definitions clearly state that the Geek is single-minded, but only in scientific or technical pursuits; whereas a Junkie is one who has an insatiable interest or devotion.

Posted on 21 September 2005

While at the height of his agoraphobia, Philip Dick formed an odd bond with the child of his second wife—author Anne Mini. Finding herself alone at a young age—due to an overworked mother and a father dying of cancer—Mini turned to her mother’s first husband, Dick, for companionship. The two spoke only on the telephone, yet by indulging one’s loneliness and the other’s paranoia, they came to construct a fantastic and fictive biography for the famously elusive sci-fi writer that, strangely enough, helped generate not only a majority of the accepted biographical information currently available on Dick, but functioned as source material for some of his acclaimed final works, including VALIS.

Interesting stuff indeed.

And already the books is controversial: Anne Mini through her publisher has apparently under threat of being sued by the Philip K Dick Estate for writing it. You can read all about it on her weblog. It certainly is an interesting read, and to be honest I can’t see how the PKD Estate have a leg to stand on. I am not even sure if it is classed - or should be classed as a PKD biography, as technically they are Anne’s memoirs. Surely you can’t copyright memories?

It seems to me there is something in the book which the PKD Estate obviously don’t like. Maybe she sheds new light on Phil, in terms of him maybe not being as screwed up as is currently thought. Maybe in fact, it’s the other way around, maybe he was a story teller outside of writing his novels, did he indeed, as was proposed on the PKD forum, that he manufactured illnesses because of looming deadlines or obligations he couldn’t adhere to. Unfortunately, Anne herself can’t give out specific details which makes sense, so she herself is quiet on this regard at the moment.

I hope the book is finally released without any backlashes against Anne or her publisher. It would be another part of the jigsaw puzzle that was the life of Philip K Dick; and from a hitherto unique perspective.

So, until the book is released in 2006, you’ll have to make do with ongoing conflicts of Anne Mini Vs The PKD Estate. This is definately one of the most thought provoking non-read books on Philip K Dick. Be sure to reserve your copy, as once you start to read it, I bet it’s fascinating purely because of the controversy.

Go visit her at her blog and give her your support - if you’re interested in fiction and writing, then she also does some informative articles on fiction in general.

Following this brief writeup, there is the full extract for James Clemens’ Shadowfall; my personal favourite.

Nowadays it is unusual to get anything for free. While perusing a bookshop in Eastbourne we came across a small black book with the word ‘FREE’ emblazoned across the front. It is entitled ‘THE FUTURE IS NOW, Essential Science Fiction And Fantasy’. Contained within it as six extracts across 153 pages, of up and coming books from Orbit Books. It has been a long time since I’ve seen anything like this.

There isn’t really much to review, but I feel this is an excellent way of pushing SF outside of the group of readers who are into SF; into the mainstream so to speak.